Businesswoman Tatiana Geogea always wanted to run her own beauty salon - now she has achieved it with the opening of Chic Beauty Salon in Orwell Place.

Tatiana, who grew up in Romania, said: “This is my dream. This is such a lovely building and we have spent a lot of time getting it right. We have tried to be very kind the building.

“I love this Grade II listed building, it is beautiful.

“My dream was always to have my own business. I told my mum I was going to have my own beauty salon when I was six or seven years old.

“It has been a long time coming,” she laughed.

She worked in HR before starting her own recruitment agency. “But for 15 years I have had this dream here.

“I went to the auction and bought this property, which was just right, and we have fully re-decorated it now.”

It now has treatment rooms and the staff team include experienced beauticians and masseurs.

She had been told the corner building had once been a butcher’s shop, and more recently a wedding dressing shop and a bike shop.

I wondered what had brought her to Ipswich?

“I came to this country from Romania, in 2008. I have a degree in management and I was doing my MBA at Suffolk College (now UCS).

“My dream was to have my own business as well, and I did my dissertation on Buy-to-Let.

“I used to work in HR management as well. I enjoy working for myself and I run a recruitment agency.

“For 15 years I have had my dream of a salon.”

“My sister Rodica, has helped me with this.

“It is all very exciting.

“We started three weeks ago and it is growing nicely.

“I am quite pleased with the way it is going.

“The other neighbouring businesses here are very welcoming, and they complement us, like hairdressers and taning.

“I think marketing is very important.

“It is important to promote the business when you are a new business in town, in the press and on the internet. You have to get your message out there.

“The beauty industry is growing in this country but it is still a long way behind America, for example.”

Chic Beauty is offering an opening 20% discount for new customers.

Services on offer include dermalogical facials and a range of massages, semi-permanent make-up, waxing, and eyebrow tinting and shaping, manicures and pedicures.

Tatiana said her personal favourite treatments were dermalogical facials and Gelish nails.

“Women like to look good and feel good. Beauty is a growing business.”

Ipswich was a good place to do business, she said. There were a lot of people running their own independent businesses. It was a strong community and she had received encouragement from others including a hairdresser.

“People want more independent shops and businesses. There are lovely buildings in the streets towards the Waterfront.

“I don’t like to see empty shops.

“Ipswich is a lovely town. I love Suffolk too, to be honest.

“You are only an hour from London and half-an-hour from the coast.

“I like to spend time at the Waterfront, at Isaacs and having a coffee or a meal at the Salthouse Harbour Hotel.

“And Christchurch Park is among my favourite places.

“I also like to go to Woodbridge, and the coast at Southwold and Aldeburgh.

“I grew up in rural Romania for 20 years and my mother lives close to the Black Sea, so I love being near the sea.”